{"id":2107,"date":"2025-10-14T10:49:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2107\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T10:49:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:49:33","slug":"state-officials-will-remove-st-petersburgs-street-murals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2107\/","title":{"rendered":"State officials will remove St. Petersburg’s street murals"},"content":{"rendered":"

State officials on Friday denied St. Petersburg’s request to exempt some of its street art from removal.<\/p>\n

The city sent the request earlier this week in response to a June memo from the Florida Department of Transportation demanding any street art with political or ideological messages be removed. <\/p>\n

City officials had asked for an exemption for five murals, including a rainbow painted crosswalk on Central Avenue and 25th Street, which they said creates a sense of community.<\/p>\n

In Orlando, a similar mural was painted over overnight<\/a> by state officials.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Orlando officials denounce removal of rainbow crosswalk near Pulse nightclub mass shooting site<\/a><\/p>\n

St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch said FDOT denied the request and state officials will be removing the artwork. St. Pete will reimburse FDOT for the cost of removal.<\/p>\n

But the community is ready to respond, said Byron Green-Calisch, president of St. Pete Pride. <\/p>\n

“There’s a full fleet of rainbow-painted, rainbow-themed things that will roll out and unfurl the moment that it may happen, and I think the community is ready to come out in force with a really strong showing of support,\u201d Green-Calisch said.<\/p>\n

Business owners are planning to repaint their storefronts and decorate the sidewalks, he said.<\/p>\n

While street murals are not the only way the city shows its inclusivity, Green-Calisch said he is afraid of what else the state will take away if they don\u2019t fight back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about community initiatives and the taxpayers themselves are fighting for these things to be left alone in their communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mayor Welch said the community will find a way to honor its values “in every space and through every medium available to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The city remains committed to working with our community to find lawful ways to celebrate and express our values in the public realm,” he wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

He added the “spirit of what makes St. Pete a special place” can’t be changed by legislation.<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Transportation did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State officials on Friday denied St. Petersburg’s request to exempt some of its street art from removal. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-2107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}